Shortly Before Christopher Marlowes Untimely Death During A Bar Brawl, He Was Ar

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Term Paper Title	Shortly Before Christopher Marlowes Untimely Death During A Bar Brawl, He Was Ar
# of Words	1031
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.12

Shortly before Christopher Marlowe's untimely death during a bar brawl, he was arrested and charged with atheism, a high crime at the time. Much of the basis for this claim may have stemmed from his controversial play, "Doctor Faustus," which deals heavily with necromancy and the devil. Using only this play as a basis to decide his guilt or innocence under the charge of atheism, I have found him innocent, with the understanding that if I was a judge presiding over the proceedings of a mock Marlowe trial, I might well have found him guilty. Let me explain.
In deciding Marlowe's guilt or innocence, one must take into account the time period during which he was charged. To be "guilty" of atheism today is not a crime; therefore it is easy to be an outspoken non-believer in God. During Marlowe's time, this would have led to a swift end, if not by court than by crook. Today's society is also for more intuitive than Marlowe's, and the existence of God is questioned on a daily basis by a large percentage of the population, whereas during Marlowe's time, God was accepted as a truth by such a vast majority of the population, that even those who doubted at all might be swept over by overwhelming beliefs of the public. Therefore I would find it hard to convict Marlowe of being an atheist on the level of such a person today. He could not have been extremely outspoken about his belief in God, otherwise he would have been killed for just that, and not arrested. If he were an "atheist" as described by his time period, it is in fact far more likely that he was an agnostic, especially given his interest in religion in "Doctor Faustus."
Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus" is in some ways very helpful, and in other ways very difficult, in providing information as to Christopher's views on religion. It seems hard at the beginning and end of the play to label him as an atheist, due to the morality and meaning of the play (pride will lead to ruin, do not forsake God for worldly pleasures, etc.). The chorus opens the play by describing how Faustus's downfall will occur, with excessive pride and scorn for God, which hardly seems blasphemous. In Faustus's opening soliloquy he quotes uncompleted lines of scripture, causing him to misinterpret their intended meaning, and turning him to the devil. If someone did not read the entire play, it might be conceivable that in their religious fervor they might have missed the meaning of these lines and merely seen Marlowe as twisting the Scriptu...

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